Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Dont go near , Lucas. Pommy rubbish . They closed the factory down here broke all the machinery . They had 11 % failure rate on alternators J.P;. l

James, that's the reason you guys drink warm beer, Lucas made the refrigerators

Bill, what wiring do you have to that regulator? I have an automotive 60amp alt going to a black (looks to be automotive) regulator on the firewall. Recently my voltage has been mid 15v and even spiked 16v a few times in flight. I don't want to drop 200$ on a regulator to replace something simple.

My confusion with ordering one is the wiring. My alt has 2 small wires that go directly to the regulator on the firewall and then the main power wire that goes to my circuit breaker. My regulator also has my field wire from the panel to it. Most diagrams show only 1 wire from the alt to the regulator so I'm confused which to use and where to put them. A $20 ford regulator would be ideal as a replacement over the 200$ aircraft units.

Thanks for any info you can give. I'll get a picture of my regulator this afternoon. There is no label on the main side so I'll unscrew it and see if it shows what it is on the under side.

On some installations a small wire will be routed from the alternator output terminal to the regulator in addition to field circuit. For example, on a Cessna one small wire connects the A+ terminals on the alternator and regulator and the other connects the field (F) terminals.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Ok thanks! I took mine off and found a broken coil wire inside so that's obviously the issue. It is an automotive one and I think a ford. Manufacture date 05 of 1971 so I think I'm due for a new one. I just need to find one with the same 3 hole mounting locations so it's an easy swap.